The use of online video sites such as YouTube are on the rise. In a recent poll conducted by D S Simon Productions, 65% of all online media sites use so-called “outside video sources” to supplement their content. Furthermore, 67% of magazines, newspapers, and radio stations and 45% of television stations say that their respective websites have used at least some outside video with the past year. Out of those polled, 79% state that they plan on using outside video sometime in the immediate future. “Web Influencers [sic] are now the mainstream media,” said D S Simon president Douglas Simon in a statement to Online Media Daily. “We need to understand the content needs of these Web Influencers if we hope to communicate successfully in the online world.”

Elsewhere in the polls, not everyone is down on the economy. According to a DLA Piper survey, 66% of business executives polled believe that the “Tech Bubble” troubles of 2000 was worse overall than the current crisis. Only 25% said that they are planning to cut back due to financial concerns. While the mood isn’t exactly upbeat — 75% said that their businesses have been negatively affected by the market’s volatility — the survey suggests that things aren’t as bad as it could be.”Those responses reflect an opinion that the impact of the current crisis on the technology industry is more residual than the 2000 crash,” says DLA Piper co-head Peter Astiz.

Moving to the web, data tracker Hitwise has published an interesting list detailing the twenty most popular websites in the month of September. Coming in first is Google, with an industry leading 6% market share. Despite its impeccable reputation amongst the web elite, Google’s Gmail mail service came in eleventh with a 0.79% share. The undisputed king of the web-based email services is Yahoo Mail, which came in second overall with a surprising 4.7% share. Other notable rankings include MySpace (third, 4.01% share), Facebook (eighth, 1.2% share), and YouTube (tenth, 0.93% share).

Our last stop on the survey train takes us to England. According to the London Telegraph, 92% 0f those polled said that they were at their creative worst at 4:33 in the afternoon. In contrast, 25% said that they were at their best past midnight. Nearly 44% mentioned that a quick shower usually gives their minds a proverbial “second wind.” The survey also suggests that people tend to be more inspired in the lavatory than anywhere else. It just goes to show that creativity can truly strike at any time … unless the time in question is 4:33, that is.

And finally, it seems as if Microsoft’s search interests are about to get the “social” treatment. A derivative of Live Search, U Rank allows users to not only customize their searches, but also share them with others. Although still in development and fairly bug-filled, many critics consider U Rank to be an interesting departure for Microsoft. “This… takes search into a different direction by putting a lot of emphasis on social interaction,” writes RedWriteWeb contributor Frederick Lardinois. “We can see how this new interface could be very useful if you are working in a team that is focused on a very specific topic.” U Rank is up and running now.